The German government on Wednesday banned an organisation accused of being an “outpost” of Iran’s theocracy, the Islamic Center Hamburg, or IZH, and five suborganisations.
The Islamic Center Hamburg (IZH) promotes the ideology of Iran’s leadership and supports the Hezbollah militant group of Lebanon. The German police raided 53 properties around the country, including a prominent mosque in Hamburg, reports the AP.
The ban on the IZH and five suborganisations follows searches conducted in November during an investigation, which “confirmed the serious suspicions to such a degree that we ordered the ban today,” said Interior Minister Nancy Faeser.
The IZH “promotes an Islamist-extremist, totalitarian ideology in Germany” while “also supporting the terrorists of Hezbollah and the spreading of aggressive antisemitism,” Faeser said in a statement, adding that “investigations have confirmed without a doubt that the IZH’s activities are not simply religious in nature.” It said the group’s purpose and activities oppose Germany’s constitutional order.
Faeser’s ministry said that “as the direct representative of Iran’s ‘Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution,’ the IZH disseminates the ideology of the Islamic Revolution in an aggressive and militant way and seeks to bring about such a revolution in the Federal Republic of Germany.”
Raids were conducted in Hamburg, Berlin, and six other German cities, including the distinctive blue-tiled Imam Ali Mosque in Hamburg, the group’s most prominent facility.
The IZH has long been under observation by Germany’s domestic intelligence agency, and there have been calls for its ban for years. It was Iran’s most important representative in Germany beside the country’s embassy.
As a result of the ban, four Shiite mosques in the country will be closed, and IZH assets will be confiscated.
Andy Grote, the top regional security official in Hamburg, declared that the group is now “history.” He said that “the closure of this outpost of the inhuman Iranian regime is a really effective hit against Islamic extremism.”
Photo credit: Daniel Bockwoldt/dpa via AP
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